at Lumière

Posted on 20.10.2023

Suzanne Lindon introducing Don't Come Knocking

« I'm moved because this is the first time in my life that I'm introducing a film. This may not be Wim Wenders' best-known film, but it means a lot to me. I saw it two years after it came out at the age of seven and I didn't understand everything, but I saw it before Paris, Texas, which is without a doubt the most powerful cinema experience of my life. The link is there because these are the two films on which Sam Shepard and Wim Wenders worked together, and there's an intimate connection for me, as if Don't Come Knocking was the ‘little cousin’ of the most important film of my life. It also touched me because, as the daughter of a couple both on screen and off, it's very moving to witness the reunion of the characters played by Sam Shepard and Jessica Lange. You can tell they are in love. When you film people, you see a lot of who they are, and it's poignant to see that Wenders had to be a third person outside their intimacy. »

 
© Jean-Luc Mège 

Wim Wenders introducing Kings of the Road

« It's a road movie, with a set itinerary and, in all, one written scene, corresponding to the moment when the two characters meet, one in his lorry and the other in his BMW. So when we started shooting, all we had was a route, the one linking the still-open cinemas on the border between East and West Germany. We wrote the film as it was being shot. Initially, the actors agreed to help me with this task, but after three days they stopped because they said they were too tired! They told me they needed to sleep! We didn't know whether we were going to shoot a short film or a three-hour movie. I had located all the cinemas that still existed. Because the border couldn't be crossed, all the surrounding areas were completely abandoned. Young people were leaving because there was no work. It was a bit like shooting in the American West! All the cinema owners are real. Some even screened silent films and hired musicians. »